Transcript

So the Christensen Center is still a relatively new institution within Harvard Business School.  There was an effort made by Kim Clark to I think institutionalize the process that to that point had been much more ad hoc in mentoring and training the faculty coming into the school.  Traditionally, there were a large number of faculty who had a history at the school as students, as researchers, MBAs — in many cases MBAs, as well as DBAs, and RAs.  Increasingly, those were in the minority.  And it's amazing to think today that of the new instructors coming into HBS a clear minority even have MBAs, much less an MBA from Harvard.

And it begs the question, as you have fewer and fewer faculty with the culture of the school kind of running through their veins, you know, how do you actually develop these new instructors within the case method tradition, and within the basic approach that the school has used over the years?

And so the Christensen Center was really created as a — as an institution that would be dedicated 100 percent to the support and development of teaching excellence within the school.  And furthermore, really serve as a contributor to the development more broadly, within professional education within business schools in the US and abroad, to develop and communicate best practices around case method teaching, and discussion-based learning.